TODAY’S READINGS

The Gospel reading is from Mt 7:21, 24-27, which closes out the Sermon on the Mount. The key verse contains these words of Jesus:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (v. 21)

“To be genuine, prayer must be accompanied by a persevering effort to do God’s will. Similarly, in order to do his will it is not enough to speak about the things of God: there must be a consistency between what one preaches — what one says — and what one does: ‘”‘The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power’ (1 Cor 4:20); ‘”‘Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves'”‘ (Jas 1:22)…To enter the Kingdom of heaven, to be holy, it is not enough, then, to speak eloquently about holiness. One has to practise what one preaches, to produce fruit which accords with one’s words.” (The Navarre Bible: St Matthew, 84)

“The wishful repetition of the formulaic appeal ‘Lord, Lord!’ here corresponds to the broad and easy way to salvation that in fact leads to perdition. All the hope of such implorers is predicated on the goodwill of the Lord to save them, whereas Jesus says that those will be saved who do God’s goodwill and not merely appeal to it.” (Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word. 311)

I can’t conceive how any Christian reading the words in this Gospel passage, particularly considering the emphatic and vivid verses that follow in the reading (inexplicably two verses were excluded that make the message stark and abundantly clear [vv. 22-23]), can possibly espouse “once saved, always saved” or “faith alone” with no works absolutely required. Over and over, Christ emphasizes that what we do here on earth determines our eternal fate (for starters, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, and the narrow gate and the wide gate). The last example comes just a few verses before today’s reading. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes. It is as if Jesus is providing the capstone to all His teaching in the last three chapters: “Have you been listening? Let me drive it home!”

Peter takes on those who misread Paul, but also those who do the same with the rest of the Bible:

In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures. (1 Pt 3:16)

Thank God for the Spirit-protected Catholic Church!

SAINT OF THE DAY: AMBROSE

The man who had such an impact on St. Augustine, bringing him into the fullness of the Faith, ultimately giving us one of the greatest theologians of the Christian era. Read him and read all about him here.

PEARL HARBOR DAY

Please pray for the over two thousand Americans who died this day eighty-two years ago on the southern coast of Oahu. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord…

God bless.